


Christmas Tree

by perhapsaperson



Series: Holiday advent challenge 2019 [3]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:01:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21777211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perhapsaperson/pseuds/perhapsaperson
Summary: In retrospect, leaving Teal’c to handle the tree may not have been the best judgement.The team decorates together for the holidays.holiday advent challenge day three, prompt: pine + ornament
Series: Holiday advent challenge 2019 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1566133
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	Christmas Tree

**Author's Note:**

> just got this one done on time

In retrospect, leaving Teal’c to handle the tree may not have been the best judgement. Of course, by the time this occurs to him, said tree is already in Daniel’s house, taking up what seems like half his living room, and there’s not much he can do about it. He’s already sure he’s gonna have a time getting it out later.

“It’s very… big,” Jack says, before Daniel can say anything.

“I believe that in you culture, a larger tree is more desirable,” Teal’c explains.

“Oh yeah, no,” Daniel says, stumbling. “This may just be a bit - where did you even get this?”

“There was this place where they let you cut down your own trees,” Jonas says, occupying himself with eating some of the cookies he and Cam (mostly Cam, really,) had spent the day making.

“Mhmm, mhmm,” Daniel says, nodding and staring at the tree. Upon reflection, leaving two over-eager aliens to handle this particular task without any oversight was definitely a bad idea, and he should’ve recognized it as one right away. Well, live and learn.

“Was this place a forest?” Jack asks, still not taking his eyes off the tree.

“It was a tree lot,” Teal’c says, ignoring his sarcasm. “We merely brought the largest one we could find. I was told they were more festive.”

“You know,” Jonas says, studying the tree. “We maybe should’ve considered the size of the room when we were picking it out.”

“Ya think?” Jack says, rounding on him.

“I think we just got a little… carried away,” he says, looking apologetic.

“Indeed,” Teal’c says, raising an eyebrow. “Do you require a replacement, Daniel Jackson?”

“No, no,” Daniel says. “I think - we can work with this. We’re gonna need some more lights though.”

There’s a long moment of silence.

“I’ve got some lights at my place,” Jack offers. “I can go get ‘em.”

“Okay, good, good,” Daniel says, nodding. “Completely manageable.”

\- - -

“A little higher, Daniel,” Vala coaches from the ground.

After Jack left to fetch the lights, the rest of them split up into groups to start decorating. It’s probably a little late to start decorating now, on Christmas Eve, but with everything going on, no one had the time before today.

Daniel ends up working on the outside of the house with Vala and Jonas, while Sam, Teal’c and Mitchel take the inside.

“I know what I’m doing,” Daniel insists even as he struggles to untangle the string of lights.

“It’s crooked,” Vala says.

“I’m working on it,” he says. “If you wanna come up here and do it yourself, I would be happy to step down.”

“Daniel, we both know I’m more of an idea person,” she says.

“Oh, of course.”

After a few minutes of struggling with them, Daniel finally manages to straighten out the lights, spreading the string out neatly across his roof.

“Okay, that’s good, could you hand me the next one?” He waits a moment, but no one responds.

“You know, it would be nice if you guys actually helped,” Daniel says with exasperation, turning to face them.

Jonas and Vala still don’t seem to notice he said anything. They’re standing out on the sidewalk in front of his yard, which is practically covered in ice at the moment. Jonas is sliding around on it, looking delighted. Daniel smiles despite himself.

“If you fall and break your neck, don’t complain to me,” he hears Vala say.

“If we can survive the Goa’ould, the replicators and the Ori, I’m sure I can handle an icy sidewalk,” Jonas says, still grinning. Vala looks skeptical.

They seem like they’re having fun, and a part of Daniel wants to just leave them to it. On the other hand, they need to finish decorating, and he’s getting cold.

“Guys,” he says a little louder, going for an irritated tone which is probably undercut by his fond smile.

This time they both look up. “Yes, Daniel?” Vala asks.

“Could you get the rest of the lights?”

“Right sorry,” Jonas says, rushing forward to pull them out of the box and hand them up to Daniel.

“It looks pretty good,” he says, once Daniel has climbed down and stepped back to appraise his work.

“I hate to say it, Daniel, but we did a good job,” Vala says.

“Now it’s ‘we’, huh?” Daniel rolls his eyes, but his tone is light. It reality, this is the most decoration this house has ever seen, at least since he’s lived in it, and he kind of likes it.

He turns away when he hears someone pulling into his driveway.

“I’m back,” Jack says cheerfully, emerging from his truck. The back is loaded with a ridiculous amount of lights, which is actually good, since they’d used up all of Daniel’s before even getting to the tree. He’d never been the biggest decorator.

“Let’s get these inside then,” Vala says, and with one last place at the lights, Daniel follows them.

\- - -

“Do we do the tree-lighting thing now?” Jonas asks.

“Is that some sort of tradition?” Vala asks around a candy cane she’s sucking on, a candy cane which was supposed to be for the tree.

“Oh yeah,” says Mitchel. “Once the decorating is all done, you just plug it in and, boom, it all lights up.”

Vala narrows her eyes. “In some sort of explosion?”

“Hopefully not,” says Sam, hovering by the extension cord.

Daniel looks over the tree, which is by now fully covered with copious amounts of tinsel, garlands and ornaments, in every colour imaginable. It’s a mess, but a festive mess, which is exactly what Daniel had expected when they’d all decided to decorate it together.

“Seems ready,” Jack says, glancing over at Sam, now holding the cord next to the electric outlet.

“One moment,” says Teal’c holding up a hand. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out one more ornament, a little bauble in the shape of Darth Vader. Daniel feels himself grinning as Teal’c carefully places the ornament front and centre on the colourful tree.

Once Teal’c steps away with a satisfied nod, Jack turns off all the other lights. Sam does the honours and plugs it in.

It lights up in all its multicoloured glory, immediately followed by a chorus of ooh’s, including from Daniel himself.

Daniel’s living room, dark except for the Christmas lights, looks almost magical, almost like it’s not a real place. And his friends, staring up at the tree, captivated, faces awash in the colourful lights, look equally so.

Daniel looks around slowly, trying to embed this moment in his memory. It was the first time they’ve all been able to spend time together in what feels like forever. Months, at least. He wants to remember it.

They have the week off, after this, and they’ll spend the holiday together. After tomorrow, they’ll be living in that liminal space between Christmas and new years. They’ll all be staying in the same house, and there will be no Stargate, no work, just them here, and it won’t feel real. It’ll feel like their own little pocket of time, separated from everything else. It’ll come to an end, of course, but they’ll come back to each other, like they always do.

Right now, Daniel can forget about everything else, forget about all the danger in the galaxy, and just be here, now. All of them, together. The rest will follow.

**Author's Note:**

> love me some team bonding yeah!!


End file.
